Author: Amnewsworld

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket lifted off from West Texas, sending the capsule on a 10-minute flight with six crew members. The flight included Coby Cotton, co-founder of Dude Perfect; Mario Ferreira, a Portuguese entrepreneur; Vanessa O’Brien, a British-American mountaineer; Clint Kelly III, a technology leader; Sara Sabry, an Egyptian engineer; and Steve Young, a telecommunications executive. Their automated capsule flew into space, providing a few minutes of weightlessness before being parachuted into the desert. The company is working in Cape Canaveral on a larger orbital class rocket, named New Glenn after the first American to orbit the world, John…

Raila Amolo Odinga, a veteran Kenyan political leader and one-time prime minister, has long cast himself as an anti-establishment firebrand, despite belonging to one of the country’s top political dynasties. But his decision to strike an alliance with his arch-rival, President Uhuru Kenyatta, and secure the ruling party’s backing as he vies yet again for the top job in the August 9 elections, risks taking the shine off his brand. The Kenyatta and Odinga families have dominated Kenyan politics since the country won independence from Britain in 1963. Uhuru Kenyatta’s father Jomo was the East African nation’s first president while…

In Senegal; it is the first time since the West African nation’s independence in 1960 that the ruling party’s group loses its absolute majority in Parliament. It will have to rely on other forces in parliament to pass legislation. The opposition had hoped the elections would impose a cohabitation, or divided government, on Sall and curb any ambitions he may have for a third term. And it seems to have succeeded. The main opposition coalition Yewwi Askane Wi won 56 seats, while its ally Wallu Senegal won 24 seats. Some seven million Senegalese were eligible to vote in the election…

For years, selling eggs was a joyless business for Danai Bvochora, as most of the money she made went to cover minibus fares to the market in a rural area of Zimbabwe. That was until an earth-brown solar-powered electric tricycle changed things for the better. “We used to carry loads on our heads before. The tricycle has lessened the burden,” said the 47-year-old from Domboshava, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. She carefully loads eggs onto the tricycle’s trailer before embarking on a bumpy eight-kilometre journey to the market. “We even use it to go to…

Carrying candles, singing and displaying a Congolese flag on the floor, members of different social movements and politicians remembered the 36 people who died in the last few days during protests against the United Nations mission in the country, MONUSCO. The group has demanded justice be applied in and outside Congo, against those who killed the protesters. “We are making a certain connection (with this vigil) with the memories of all these victims who fell innocently, who fell in an awful and cruel way. And that is the reason for our mourning tonight. And we believe that justice must be…

Everyone who moves through downtown Atlanta today passes places where innocent Black men and women were pulled from trolleys, shot in their workplaces, chased through the streets and beaten to death by a mob of 10,000 white men and boys. But few have been taught about the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, which shaped the city’s geography, economy, society and power structure in lasting ways. Much like the Red Summer of 1919 in the South and Northeast and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 in Oklahoma would years later, the white-on-Black violence in Atlanta shattered dreams of racial harmony and forced…

The Congolese government has asked the United Nations to expel its spokesman in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to an official letter seen by AFP on Wednesday (August 3). “The government will appreciate very much if arrangements are made for Mathias Gillmann to leave Congolese territory as soon as possible,” Congolese Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula wrote to the head of Monusco. “The presence of this official on national territory is not likely to foster a climate of mutual trust and serenity that is so essential between the Congolese institutions and Monusco,” Lutundula said. “The comments made by Mr…

South African police arrested more than 40 men over suspected illegal mining on Tuesday in Krugersdorp outside Johannesburg. Authorities in Gauteng province have stepped up their operations against illegal miners in recent days following reports of the gang rapes of eight women and armed robbery of a video production crew. The suspects in that case are allegedly illegal miners, but none of those detained on Tuesday have been directly linked to the incident which outraged the Krugersdorp community. Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela said while the 40 men were arrested for their “own deeds”, the process of taking DNA…

A visit to Taiwan by the US House of Representatives’ Nancy Pelosi would put pressure on China to respond militarily. But Beijing will be careful to not trigger direct military confrontation with the US, say experts. The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, began her Asia tour on Monday, with a lot of attention still on whether she will make a stopover in Taiwan or not. Over the last week, some US government officials and foreign policy analysts have expressed concerns about the likelihood of such a trip escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington, while China’s Defense…

The death toll from weekend flooding in the eastern Ugandan town of Mbale has risen to 22, with 10 seriously injured, police said Monday. Two rivers burst their banks after heavy rains caused mudslides, causing widespread damage and forcing hundreds of residents to leave their homes. “The death toll from the floods in Mbale has risen to 22. Ten others are in critical condition,” Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga told AFP. Some of the victims were found trapped in a minibus, he said, adding: “They were mainly relatives and friends who were on their way to a party but were…